


Gifts

by AlterEgon



Category: A Knight's Tale (2001)
Genre: Gen, Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-24
Updated: 2012-12-24
Packaged: 2017-11-22 06:41:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/606936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlterEgon/pseuds/AlterEgon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wedding preparations for William and Jocelyn are well underway, but his four friends face a vital problem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gifts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [polishmyarmor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/polishmyarmor/gifts).



"We could just not give him anything," Wat suggested with a half-grin. "It's not like they'd notice, what with all the other things they'll be getting."

"No!" three voices replied at once. Wat ducked his head and stared into the distance. "Then you come up with something! Because I'm all out of ideas."

After a few minutes spent in silence, all of them thinking hard, Roland spoke. "We could get him a new saddle."

"No," Kate objected. "He doesn’t need another saddle. He has plenty of tack for his horses.

"A new horse?" Roland responded immediately.

"He has plenty of horses. He doesn't need another one."

Roland sighed. "Well, but _we_ need a present. What's your idea?"

The smith contemplated for another second. "How about an improved set of armor?"

Again, three heads were shaken in unison. "He has armor," Roland pointed out, while Chaucer added: "Unless you expect him to wear armor to his wedding night. Somehow I don't think Jocelyn would agree."

"Well, he could," Kate said, grinning broadly enough to make clear she didn't actually mean it. "My armor leaves a man with plenty of freedom of movement. I am certain he would perform admirably in it."

Chaucer made a face. "Now, Kate,  imagine you're marrying… There's the man of your dreams, and he is finally, finally yours, and then after the wedding he comes to bed wearing a suit of steel plate. How'd you feel about that?"

"Speaking of suits," Roland threw in, "Does everyone have something suitable to wear yet?"

"Huh?" Wat looked down his clothes. Much better than what he was once used to wearing, they were still very much a squire's working clothes: Serviceable and practical. "What's wrong with these?"

"They are hardly fit for a wedding!" Chaucer pointed out "You don't want to stand there in the middle of all the lords and ladies and look like you've just come in from the stables, do you?"

Wat stared at him.

" _Do_ you?"

"I don't know what's wrong with these clothes," Wat muttered. "I'm not a lord – why should I look like one?"

Kate took a deep breath. "Because your friend and knight is marrying one of them and you don't want to embarrass him."

The squire still looked confused. "He wouldn't be…" he started.

Chaucer got to his feed. "Enough!" he declared. "Kate, would you see to it that Wat is properly dressed for the occasion?"

"Why me?" Kate wanted to know.

The poet rolled his eyes. "Because you're the woman," he suggested, making sure that there was sufficient distance between her and him. Woman she may be, but her work had certainly given her a hard punch to react to perceived insult.

"I'm a smith," she pointed out. "Why don't you do it? You're the one with the most refined profession here."

His eyes narrowed. "Are you trying to say I'm girly?" he asked. "I'm not doing it because at least one of us would probably not survive the ordeal. Besides, if you had been sensible and become a _goldsmith,_ wewouldn't still have our greatest problem unsolved."

"We could find one and order something," Roland took up the idea.

Wat nodded. "Like something for each of them that matches or—"

"Too late," Kate cut off this promising trail of thought. "It's too close to the wedding. We're not going to find any goldsmith with the time to make anything really special anymore."

"There's a merchant who just got this delivery of extra-fine silk," Roland pointed out. "I'm sure Jocelyn would love some."

They looked at him. "You mean the one she complained about being sold out almost before his goods arrived?" Kate wanted to know.

The older one of the squires nodded. "The same. I mean – his wife's brother owes me something, so maybe he could—"

"Nicely thought, but while _she_ would love that, _William_ wouldhave no idea what to do with it," Chaucer pointed out. "That's a woman's present, we're aiming at them both!"

"So why not give each of them something separate? Silk for her, armor for him?" Kate suggested, but the poet was already shaking his head.

"It's their wedding after all," he reminded them. "They should get something as a couple."

Another few moments of frantic thought followed.

"Something…" Wat started.

"No!" Chaucer cut him off.

The squire looked insulted. "You didn't even hear what I was going to say!"

Chaucer, still standing, snorted. "I didn't need to. You were going to say it, that's quite enough."

Wat launched himself across the small room and at the poet. He didn't get very far before Roland grabbed him and pulled him back to his seat. It didn't take a lot to foresee the younger squire's reactions to the poet's provocation.

"Stop goading him on," Kate chided. "The situation is much too serious for us to be fighting among ourselves. Really boys. We need to – oh. How about a poem, Chaucer?"

"Like now?" he asked.

The smith shook her head. "For the wedding."

"A), " Chaucer explained, gesturing as if he was introducing William in the joust, "That would be a present from _me_ , not _us,_ and B), a wedding present should be properly, adequately, suitably, glamorously presented. Have you ever tried wrapping  a poem? I can assure you, it will not work!"

He started pacing, crossing the room all the way to the wall, doing a sharp turn and walking until he nearly slammed into the opposite wall before turning again. How could it be so hard? He could make up speeches and poetry on the spot – it couldn't be that difficult to come up with a simple wedding present!

"What do they _need_?" He muttered. "Something that they do not have plenty of already, that will benefit them both equally, that …"

"Time."

All three of them stared at Wat.

"No, really," he went on. "What they really don't have enough of is time for each other. Him with the jousting and her with the lady's duties and now both of them with preparations, and after the wedding he'll probably be off to war with the prince soon, right?"

"Brilliant," Chaucer said. "So all we do is grab some time, wrap it nicely up in a present and give it to them."

Kate stood as well. "It _is_ brilliant," she said. "Maybe we can organize something for them. Say, a weekend after the wedding. Get some out of the way place for them to enjoy their marriage in luxury and guard it against any unwelcome intruders. I'm sure you know a place that's good, Roland could see to the food and—we could do that!"

The other two men stared back and forth between Kate and Wat, then, reluctantly nodded.

"We could do that," Roland allowed.

Chaucer broke into a  grin. "Great!" He laughed. "Now all we need to do is figure out how to wrap it!"

 

  
  
Illustration by Rebekah


End file.
